for Adams and Pinckney in 1796. Adams was much excited by the result of this election. He abruptly dismissed from his cabinet two Ministers,-McHenry from the War Department and Pickering from the Department of State. On the 22d of November President Adams met the Sixth Congress at Washington City, the then seat of Government, where the various departments had been established since the adjournment of Congress in May last. Here the first Presidential speech delivered in the new capitol of the nation, was the last Annual Address of John Adams.

1800.

It was a reflectful and imposing occasion. A seat, designed to be as permanent as the Government itself, had been adopted; here stood the first capitol of the nation; here the first solemn temple dedicated to American liberty reared its massive walls and glittering domes; here, for the first time in the house of the nation, the guardians of the country gathered around its altar, with their fervent prayers to Heaven that this might ever be the unpolluted fane of freedom.

The Address of the President was a brief and neat paper, reciting the condition of the country and its evident progress to unsurpassed wealth and power. He called the attention of Congress specially to the condition of our navy, and urged its claims for advancement and protection, in which connection he pointed out the necessity of the fortification of our seaports and harbors. The manufacture of arms likewise, in his opinion, invited the attention of our National Legislature. This branch of manufacture had already attained that state of perfection which, with little more care, would supersede the necessity of future importations.

This Congress continued in session until the 3d of March, at which time it closed its doors by operation of law.

Its labors were of a limited character. The most important acts related to the naval peace establishment, an institution which has done the most efficient service towards building up our commerce with the world, notwithstanding this act empowered the President, when he should think it safe or prudent, to sell the ships of the United States, except thirteen of the largest frigates, and that six of these be dismantled and the remainder continued in service. An act passed for continuing the mint establishment, and for estimating foreign coin. The subject of erecting a mausoleum to Washington was frequently discussed at this session. The House of Representatives proposed a mausoleum and voted one hundred

thousand dollars for the purpose; this was rejected by the Senate, which proposed, from motives of economy, the erection of a monument, towards the completion of which that body voted fifty thousand dollars.* At this session an additional law was passed in reference to the Federal Judiciary, providing for the division of the United States into six circuits, and for the appointment of three judges in each, leaving the judges of the Supreme Court the exercise of only appellate jurisdiction.†

1801.

Between the 13th of February and the 4th of March, the President appointed, with the consent of the Senate, the eighteen judges required by the Judiciary Act for the new court. The members of this court were men of high character and distinguished ability; but this institution was violently condemned by the Republican party. In allusion to the lateness of the appointments, the incumbents were called "the midnight judges of John Adams."‡

On the 11th of February, in the Senate chamber, in the presence of both Houses of Congress, the votes for President and Vice-President were counted; a deep and awful silence pervaded the hall; anxiety stood upon every face; hopes and aspirations on one hand, dread and fear on the other, alternate rose and fell; some impelled by a noble patriotism, others actuated by a sordid love of self-promotion. The foreseeing eye of the statesman looked with anxious doubt; the administration of affairs were to remain in the dangerous hands of those whose policy was sufficiently manifest to be dreaded, or the Government was to be placed in the hands of those whose course, yet undeveloped, was known would be entirely the reverse of that which had marked the track of the present incumbents. Had the experiment failed? Could man cease to trust and confide in one, more than four years? Could our policy have no stability, but be subject to a constant check, to a watchful and a sleepless vigilance that rendered its familiar acquaintance obnoxious? If so, each four years must produce a storm whose violence, if at first but testing the strength of our political fabric, might ultimately destroy every feature. It was well believed what would be the

its

*Bradford, 116.

Journal of Cong., 1800, 1 Stat. Man., vol. i. p. 137.

The law was soon repealed, and each one of them lost his office. Stat. Man., 137.

result; yet none had ever tested the effect a sudden subversion of the policy of one Administration and the equally sudden development of another and totally different one, would produce; time alone could answer. It is true, the administration of Adams was a continuation of the party which had elected Washington, and sustained him with an approbation bordering on unanimity; but it will be seen that the Federal party had transcended the bounds of constitutional propriety, and departed far from the bold but magnanimous policy of the first administration of our Government.

It has already been noticed that an act had passed Congress authorizing the second census under the Constitution. Some new divisions of the white population had been added since the taking of the first census. A discrimination was made between the sexes, and distributed each under the following heads:

Those who were under ten years of age.

ten, and under sixteen.

sixteen, and under twenty-six.
twenty-six, and under forty-five.
forty-five, and upwards.

We were made further acquaintad with the rate of our increase. The whole population was thus distributed:

This was estimated to the 1st of August, 1800. The males of the entire white population exceeded the females in the proportion of 100 to 95.03, but there is great diversity in the proportion between the sexes at different ages. It is impossible to arrive at absolute accuracy, owing to the different habits of the sexes, and the emigration of the males. Mr. Tucker makes the following calculation, which is as accurate as can be:

Of those under ten years of age, the proportion of

males to females was as.......

Between ten and sixteen..

Between sixteen and twenty-six.....

Between twenty-six and forty-five
Over forty-five*..

100 to 94-9

100 to 94.3

100 to 102.1

95.4

94.5

The increase of the colored population, which was but little affected by migration at this period, gives a more accurate ratio of increase by natural multiplication; and supposing it to be the same with the two races, (the colored population is greater by natural multiplication,) it can be approximated in this way. The accession to our population by emigrants would in ten years be 3.45 per cent., equal to the difference between 35.68 and 32-23 per cent. It must be remembered, however, that in the slave-holding States the white population had gained a little on the colored, but more on the slaves, who, from being by the first census more than a third of the whole population, was by the second somewhat less.

It will be seen by a reference to accounts of the administration of John Adams that the expenses of the Government increased rapidly under his system of financiering.

During the eight years of Washington's administration the expenditures were $15,892,708 55; the public debt, $36,090,946 92. During Adams's administration, which continued for four years, the expenditures amounted to $21,348,351 19; the public debt, $18,957,962 69.†

Parties in the United States took an early rise and soon acquired an intense bitterness towards each other.

În reference to the Articles of Confederation, it had been clearly seen they were greatly defective in withholding from the Confederated Government self-sustaining power; designed as "a perpetual union" among the States, its functions were yet to be made "more perfect" by the Federal Constitution.

Whilst the Constitution was under discussion before the Convention that framed it, a few were for giving to the Federal Government much stronger features than it contains. After its formation it was submitted to the people of the dif

* Tucker, p. 21. "Dr. Seybert, p. 44, in his statistics, states that of persons under ten, the females exceed the males. It is due, however, to him to remark that while his computations appear to be accurate according to the data he possessed, he has often been misled by the errors in the first publications of the first and second censuses, which a more careful revision of their returns has subsequently shown."-Note by Tucker.

Stat. Man., vol. iii. p. 1547.

ferent States, who ratified it in conventions called for the purpose. A respectable and talented party in many of the States opposed its ratification, on the ground of its giving too much power to the government of its creation. A distinctive party line began to develop itself; those by whom it was advocated were denominated Federalists, whilst its opponents were known as Republicans, who were scrupulously watchful of the rights of the States.*

Upon its adoption by the different States, which occurred at intervals, the two parties and the extremes of each came together upon a common platform towards its faithful and ardent support. George Washington, who had presided over the very birth of the Constitution, whose name was enrolled at its end, who had been urgent for its adoption, was selected unanimously as the first President; and the people were to gather as one grand united party when the Government began its early career. As soon as the policy of the first Administration began to develop itself party lines were formed. It was not only necessarily incident to the very first efficient action of the Government that those principles should be adopted which called forth the exercise of its powers, but Washington, Hamilton, and nearly all connected with the Government were disposed to give it the full exercise of a free and liberal construction. Others there were, too, that had opposed the adoption of the Federal Constitution, who afterwards supported it in its fullest latitude; conspicuously among this latter class stood Patrick Henry, who, in his last days, was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates as the advocate of the Alien and Sedition Laws.

Whilst the administration of Washington was strictly constitutional, many were of opinion that the only safe policy was that limited and strict construction which, in their jealousy of the Federal Government, gave an early rise to the State-rights party, which assumed to themselves the name of Republican, and gathered strength and popularity as the administrations of Washington and Adams progressed, until they finally triumphed in the election of Mr. Jefferson. The advocates of the administration of Washington, as well as his immediate successor, were called Federalists.

The first occasion of difference which marks the origin of

* Debates in Virginia Convention upon the adoption of the Federal Constitution.